Seasonal Cookbooks

Winter can sometime seem like the most challenging time to cook healthy and interesting meals. Farmer's markets close for the season and there are less choices of local fruits and vegetables in the grocery stores. Here are two cookbooks that offer winter recipes that are healthy and simple. Each one is divided into sections for each season for easy reference.

Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express-404 Inspired Seasonal Dishes You Can Make In 20 Minutes or Less has simple recipes with few ingredients but plenty of flavor. The author writes a food column for the New York Times.

Clean Food: A Seasonal Guide to Eating Close to the Source by Terry Walters is a great resource for easy, delicious seasonal eating.

Paranormal Romance

You might favor books filled with dangerous women, usually young, often lethal and invariably underdressed, or you might prefer prefer ominous men, usually young, often dark and invariably naked to the waist. Neither of these characters is precisely what they appear to be, the woman turns lupine under the full moon, the young man's actually incredibly old and has long sharp canine teeth. They are compulsively drawn to each other and, in the end, will be very happy together. If this is you; if this is your ideal read; you were born at just the right time. Paranormal Romance is one of the hottest crazes in publishing right now, and this bubble shows no sign of bursting. Here are a few bestselling authors:

Jeaniene Frost
R.J. Ward
Sherrilyn KenyonGena Showalter
Karen Moning

Best website for quick Guitar Rock tabs n' chords

A teenage kid told me that he got a new guitar for his birthday and -did I know any songs? I had to show him this site. It's one of the places I've known about this website since the early 90's. It quite possibly was a "gopher" site before that but I digress....

It's one thing to enjoy official sheet music and proper authorized chords and tabs. But for someone just starting out, these "fake" versions submitted from guitarists and amateurs around the world are just what you need to get started!

http://www.danmansmusic.com/songs2.htm

Let's Felt!

Needle felting is a fun and easy way to add color and texture to wool or knitted fabrics, or to create your own 3-dimensional sculptures. Here are some books to help you get started.


Fast, Fun & Easy Needle Felting
by Lynne Farris

A great beginner's guide to needle felting, with everything you need to know about tools, materials, and techniques.






Designer Needle Felting: Contemporary Styles, Easy Techniques
by Terry Taylor

This colorful guide shows just how easy it can be to get eye-catching results on everything from home accessories to your favorite clothing.

What do Paris, London & NYC have in common?

PARIS 2011









LONDON 2011










NYC 2011









They are all part of the Fodor's Gold Guides that have just arrived at the Beaverton City Library.

Are you a visual person?

If you are a visual person you might like exploring Gnooks. With Gnooks you travel the visual map and locate other books, movies, even music that are similar to your favorites. It is a self learning community so responses might seem crazy, but it is a fun way to discover other titles.

You type in the name of an author, or music or artist and a visual map is prepared. The closer an item is to your author the more likely you will like that author.

But remember, the results are based on other users so the results might seem crazy. Here is a search for Maya Angelou. Would you have thought Dante or Mark Twain would appear? If nothing else it will make you smile!

Best Free Reference Websites

The Reference & User Services Association (RUSA) of the American Library Association compiles an annual list of the best free reference websites. 
http://www.rusq.org/2010/10/03/best-free-reference-websites-twelfth-annual-list/

One highlight is The Baby Name Wizard --designed to help a parent-to-be find that perfect name.  Check it out!

Opposing Viewpoints

One of the many excellent databases available 24/7 (with your library card) at WCCLS is Opposing Viewpoints in Context.

Opposing Viewpoints in Context is a great way to explore and understand topical issues. Opposing Viewpoints provides pro and con viewpoints on issues, full text newspaper and journal articles, podcasts, videos, and selected websites.

If you are searching for a research topic explore the issues in Opposing Viewpoints in Context.

FactCheck

With the November elections fast approaching, you may want to check out a website from the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. Referred to as the Annenberg Political FactCheck, this site "monitors the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases". Politicians' claims and statements are analyzed and individuals can browse by date or search by keyword to access the last four years of the archives. An analysis of whether the stimulus legislation actually created new jobs was recently published. The Republican "Pledge to America" was also dissected last month. Interesting reading!!

Oregon General Election--November 2nd, 2010

There is an upcoming Oregon general election on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010. For information on ballot drop sites, voter's pamphlets, and other election information, click on your county's link below:

Washington County Elections:
http://www.co.washington.or.us/AssessmentTaxation/Elections/CurrentElection/index.cfm

Multnomah County Elections:
http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dbcs/elections/index_ue.shtml#nov10

Clackamas County Elections:
http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/elections/

Man Booker Prize awarded

Since 1969, the Man Booker Prize has been awarded to an author for the book that the prize committee considers the best novel of the year. This year's winner is Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question. Click on the link below to read more about the author and to see a list of other books considered for this year's award.

http://themanbookerprize.com/

Pulitzer Prize in Biography or Autobiography

The Pulitzer prizes have honored excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917. Biography or Autobiography is one of the categories and the Washington County libraries have many of these recent titles.

Mushroom Season

Don't be fooled, know your edible Mushrooms. The library has many excellent titles available for checkout (just don't leave the book behind on the forest floor!)

Click here for a listing of titles available in our catalog.

Oregon Book Awards

The Oregon Book Award is presented annually to highlight the achievement of one Oregon writer. To date, almost 500 Oregon writers have been recognized. You can find a list of all the books on their website, Literary Arts - Oregon Book Awards.

The Beaverton Library has many of the titles available. Click here to check our catalog for a partial list of award winning titles from 2000-2009. The 2010 winner will be announced in January 2011.

Happy Reading!

Current Biography

One of my favorite biographical sources is Current Biography. This H.W. Wilson publication draws information from newspaper and magazine articles, books, the World Wide Web and other sources like personal interviews. Covering a wide range of personalities, Current Biography gives an informative and very entertaining view on people who are currently in the news. Athletes, politicians, entertainers, scientists and historians are all covered in this monthly publication that cumulates into a yearly volume. We have this resource going back to 1940 and it has proven invaluable for biographical searching. So the next time someone asks you what Lady Gaga's real name is, you can answer Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta and smile!